Pollard penalty sends Boks into the final

A pressure Handre Pollard penalty kick five minutes from time clinched the Springboks a nailbiting 19-16 semifinal win over Wales at the Yokohama International Stadium to send them into a World Cup final for the first time in 12 years.

Siya Kolisi’s team will play England here next Saturday in a repeat of the 2007 final in Paris, and the good omen of course is that the Boks won that one under the captaincy of John Smit and the coaching of Jake White. Indeed, the Boks have yet to lose a final, having won their only other appearance in a deciding game in 1995.

They will go into the game feeling that, just as the Welsh had the previous week in their quarterfinal against France, they survived a big test of nerve. It was anyone’s game as it went into the last 10 minutes and Wales were in the South African half for three or four minutes, with the Boks defending.

But a turn-over penalty effected by replacement flank Francois Louw changed the momentum. The Boks were able to transfer play back into the Welsh territory, and then came the penalty. It was from a wide angle, in other words a difficult kick. Full marks to Pollard for succeeding with it, to regain the lead for his team.

The scenes at fulltime as the @Springboks confirm their place in the final of #RWC2019, thanks largely to the boot of Handre Pollard and the brilliance of Damian de Allende ??????#StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/vhp9IgTD2D

— SuperSport ???? (@SuperSportTV) October 27, 2019

The Boks were never headed in the game, and for most of it they appeared to have the Welsh at arms-length in a clash that, to be honest, you wouldn’t have crossed the road to watch if you were a neutral and not supporting one of the two sides. It was aerial pingpong for most of the way, just as it was predicted it would be beforehand. Nothing to enthuse about from an aesthetic point of view.

You could almost feel the tension and nervousness in the two sides as they played a game of chess with each other across the first half, neither of them really willing to chance their arm. When they did attack, it was when they were deep in their opposition half. And even then, two excellent defensive systems were easily the match for any of the opposing team’s intentions.

The Boks were always stronger at forward, though not to the extent that they were against lesser teams en route to this stage of the tournament. They were stronger in the collisions too, and while they only led 9-6 at the break, they would have felt fairly comfortable. They were winning the ping-pong battle, or at least just edging it, and fullback Willie le Roux was for once fairly safe under the high ball.

Pollard gave the Boks an early lead with a penalty, then Wales came back not long after with a kick of their own through Dan Biggar. Two more Pollard penalties eased the Boks ahead 9-3 and with halftime nearing they appeared to be in the ascendancy, only for the Welsh to draw three points back with another Biggar penalty just before the break.

It isn’t clear whether that is what coach Rassie Erasmus was referring to when he referred to his team being guilty of two many soft moments that allow their opponents back into the game. But there were definitely a few of those in the 10 minutes after halftime.

They started strongly, but surrendered the initiative when a misdirected kick was marked by Leigh Halfpenny. Of course after a mark the kicker doesn’t get the benefit of the throw-in as in the case of a penalty. But Faf de Klerk, who otherwise had another good game and was responsible for an excellent territory finding kick that calmed the Bok nerves when they led by three in the final desperate minutes and thus ensured the final minutes were played exactly where they would have wanted to be, made his one big blunder of the game when he knocked the ball over the sideline.

The Welsh capitalised on that territory by getting a penalty that they kicked to draw level at 9-all. Shortly after that Le Roux made one of his few blunders of the night, and suddenly the momentum, for the first time in the match, appeared to be swinging against the South Africans.

They arrested it though when Damian de Allende scored his team’s only try with a sheer bit of wizardry out wide after the space and momentum had been created by a break from Pollard. The flyhalf then capped his good work by kicking the conversion. With not much more than 20 minutes to go, in a game like this a seven point lead seemed significant.

But then came another of those soft moments as the Boks conceded a penalty almost from the restart. Wales bravely kicked for the corner and then, even more bravely when the Boks resisted their sustained attempts to drive over the line but conceded a penalty, they opted for a scrum rather than to kick the goal from right in front.

It paid off when the scrum wheeled and space was created for Gareth Davies to put Josh Adams, the left wing, in at the corner. Halfpenny was called upon to kick for the first time in the game and with the scores level at 16-all with 13 minutes to go, England coach Eddie Jones’ wish for a draw and extra time looked like it might come true.

That it didn’t was because the Boks showed bottle when they needed to, and full marks to Pollard for landing all his place-kicks on the night. Had he not done so the Boks would be playing the All Blacks in the third/fourth play-off on Friday.

As it is they face a tough challenge next week, but England play a different kind of game and it might draw a different kind of response from the Boks. What matters is that they are in the last game of the tournament and have a 50/50 chance of winning the biggest prize in rugby.

Scores

South Africa 19 - Try: Damian de Allende; Conversion: Handre Pollard; Penalties: Handre Pollard 4.

Wales 16 - Try: Josh Adams; Conversion: Leigh Halfpenny; Penalties: Dan Biggar 3.